In the 1990 article, Anchored Instruction: Why We Need It and How Technology Can Help, JD Bransford et all discussed how to use video to create authentic learning situations that teach real problem solving strategies that allow students to create their own questions as they work them through authentic, concrete learning environments. 

The article begins with a discussion about how students are unable to create conditioned problem solving triggers that help them solve problems.  Even when they already know strategies that may help them solve problems, they are unable to realize when to use them in traditional word problems.  By  using video-based anchors, students are able become immersed in the problem because the video offers much more vivid, affectual details as compared to verbal descriptions found in books and lectures. As a result, they are able to come up with the questions they need to ask to solve a problem—sometimes even when the teacher hasn’t pre-taught the skill.

The article continues with examples of how they created anchored instruction using Indiana Jones and the Jasper series.  They end with a third example of how to use the guidelines they laid out to create their own videos. 

The title, how technology can help, is a little deceiving as the only technology is video laser discs and the ability to code those videos using programs like HANDY— the same program used in the Citizen Kane video hypertext study.  As this was a big breakthrough in the pre-CD ROM desktop computer era where VHS was previously the only video option available, the technology was important at the time.

Key Quote:

Bransford (1990) states the model is designed to help students develop useful knowledge rather than inert knowledge. At the heart of the model is an emphasis on the importance of creating an anchor or focus that generates interest and enables students to identify and define problems and to pay attention to their own perception and comprehension of these problems.”

 Response:

Seventeen years later, as video production tools have reached the level where students as early as elementary school can create their own slideshows and films, students, once they have completed an anchored or non-anchored instructional unit, could become creators themselves.  They could make their own videos that enable the teacher to use them in future classes to teach new students. 

Anchored instruction via video is also simpler than ever today. The web offers many streaming video websites such as Discovery Education Streaming giving educators a host of anchors to choose from.  Choosing the correct video and setting up scaffolds and realizing and pinpointing exact teachable moments within the anchor is the challenge for teachers.